Is it safe to ask for feedback on Reading Boys and Kendrick
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Mum sent me a detailed PM shortly after the Kendrick exam, she is currently having IT trouble and has allowed me to post an edited version. Well done Mum & DD good luck & best wishes for March. 
stevew61
Mum wrote,
My daughter came out of the exam and immediately wrote a note to somebody who helped her with some practice papers at times. I'm copying and pasting that to you. Sorry for the delay
About the exam
When we first arrived at Kendrick school, some sixth form girls started leading us into a large hall where there were 3 desks with different coloured cards on them. They told us to find the desk with that had a card that was the same colour as our examination cards & to sign in. After I signed in I had to form a queue and wait for a few more girls that had the same colour examination cards as me. Soon after, some more girls arrived with the same
colour sheet and we all went into the actual examining room. . Anyway, we started the first test (Verbal) at approx. 9. They read all the rules and then told us to start. The Verbal exam was more like the OLD Nfer papers than the new ones.
They had the crossword and questions that went like this:
Find the letter that occurs more than once in EARTHQUAKE and is closest to the beginning of the alphabet etc.
We had 50 minutes to complete 100 questions and we got warnings after 25 minutes and when we had 5 minutes left.
When the test finished we got a 30 minute break were we ate our snacks & talked. When me and my friends talked nearly all of them said that it was pretty hard and they missed out quite a few questions. There was this girl that didn't realise that the paper was double sided so she missed out half the questions!!!!! Then after our break, we sat down to do the final Non-Verbal exam. In the Non-Verbal, there were 4 sections:
1. Code
2. Matrices
3. A set of questions that went like..
X is to Y so Z is to ?
4. And another one that I don't remember!!
3 of the sections had 19 questions that we had to complete in 10 minutes and one section had 18 questions that we had to finish in 9 minutes. This paper was harder than the verbal. Then we were allowed to go out and meet our parents!
Thank you very much for helping me a lot and giving me the OLD Nfer papers as they were very, very helpful.
stevew61
Mum wrote,
My daughter came out of the exam and immediately wrote a note to somebody who helped her with some practice papers at times. I'm copying and pasting that to you. Sorry for the delay
About the exam
When we first arrived at Kendrick school, some sixth form girls started leading us into a large hall where there were 3 desks with different coloured cards on them. They told us to find the desk with that had a card that was the same colour as our examination cards & to sign in. After I signed in I had to form a queue and wait for a few more girls that had the same colour examination cards as me. Soon after, some more girls arrived with the same
colour sheet and we all went into the actual examining room. . Anyway, we started the first test (Verbal) at approx. 9. They read all the rules and then told us to start. The Verbal exam was more like the OLD Nfer papers than the new ones.
They had the crossword and questions that went like this:
Find the letter that occurs more than once in EARTHQUAKE and is closest to the beginning of the alphabet etc.
We had 50 minutes to complete 100 questions and we got warnings after 25 minutes and when we had 5 minutes left.
When the test finished we got a 30 minute break were we ate our snacks & talked. When me and my friends talked nearly all of them said that it was pretty hard and they missed out quite a few questions. There was this girl that didn't realise that the paper was double sided so she missed out half the questions!!!!! Then after our break, we sat down to do the final Non-Verbal exam. In the Non-Verbal, there were 4 sections:
1. Code
2. Matrices
3. A set of questions that went like..
X is to Y so Z is to ?
4. And another one that I don't remember!!
3 of the sections had 19 questions that we had to complete in 10 minutes and one section had 18 questions that we had to finish in 9 minutes. This paper was harder than the verbal. Then we were allowed to go out and meet our parents!
Thank you very much for helping me a lot and giving me the OLD Nfer papers as they were very, very helpful.
Nice to get another perspective from Mum (I wondered where she had gone). I noted the comment about NVR being harder than VR which my dd would definitely agree with! Not that she found the VR easy, just easiER!
What amazes me though is, how can anyone acccidentally miss out half the questions on a test that contains 100 qs?? Perhaps the girl (whoever she may be) knows she has possibly fared badly but is using the excuse of 'I didn't notice there were 50 more questions'!
What amazes me though is, how can anyone acccidentally miss out half the questions on a test that contains 100 qs?? Perhaps the girl (whoever she may be) knows she has possibly fared badly but is using the excuse of 'I didn't notice there were 50 more questions'!
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aliportico
- Posts: 888
- Joined: Wed Aug 01, 2007 12:19 pm
Miss half the questions, every parent’s worst nightmare. 
Most interesting the reference to "old NFER" papers.
My opinion is that for Reading & Kendrick on VR we should focus on but not get drawn into the 21 types, many candidates have reported other question types, even allowing for miss-reporting I feel that NFER reserve a special old blend for R&K. Reading have a few extra questions being multi-choice, Kendrick possibly exploit the wider choice of standard format?
Good news, the forum probably knows as much as the elusive tutors and independent schools, nice to see the field a bit more level.
stevew61
PS must declare an interest in breaking the Kendrick code
Not yet a tutor or an author but open to offers.
Most interesting the reference to "old NFER" papers.
My opinion is that for Reading & Kendrick on VR we should focus on but not get drawn into the 21 types, many candidates have reported other question types, even allowing for miss-reporting I feel that NFER reserve a special old blend for R&K. Reading have a few extra questions being multi-choice, Kendrick possibly exploit the wider choice of standard format?
Good news, the forum probably knows as much as the elusive tutors and independent schools, nice to see the field a bit more level.
stevew61
PS must declare an interest in breaking the Kendrick code
Not yet a tutor or an author but open to offers. There has been some confusion, mostly mine 
about whether or not for Reading School all the essays are marked, looks like they are.
Last year there was a child who was a red hot banker for Reading - who passed all the papers well but ran out of steam on the written piece and failed it so badly that he did not pass overall.
This information was gleaned as part of an appeal.
So you do have to do your best on the day in all four papers and just to add to the fun the surprise element will it be VR or NVR?
stevew61
about whether or not for Reading School all the essays are marked, looks like they are.Last year there was a child who was a red hot banker for Reading - who passed all the papers well but ran out of steam on the written piece and failed it so badly that he did not pass overall.
This information was gleaned as part of an appeal.
So you do have to do your best on the day in all four papers and just to add to the fun the surprise element will it be VR or NVR?
stevew61
Trying to identify best preparation for Kendrick?
So looks like Kendrick use the "older" standard form with more question types and Susan Daughtrey books 1-7 would be a good starting point.
steve
andSusan Daughtrey books 1-7 uses 35 plus types, in standard form only.
Bond uses 50 types. Only 17 of these types are applicable to the '21' so 4 are missing and far too many are included.
How do I know, because I have been tutoring for many many years. I have seen the familarisation tests used by the authority.[21 types] My students report back with amazing accuracy as to which types come up in each test. The Books 1-7 used to be relevant to Bucks and other areas using NFER but that was about 10 years ago [std form as they didnot use the computer readers to mark the M/C tests.]
Patricia
Mum's DD to tutor.Thank you very much for helping me a lot and giving me the OLD Nfer papers as they were very, very helpful.
So looks like Kendrick use the "older" standard form with more question types and Susan Daughtrey books 1-7 would be a good starting point.
steve
